Santa Maria Times: Life on the Streets Battling Meth

This is Part Two of the award winning series from the Santa Maria Times on the tragedies of Methamphetamine:

Rolling down the neighborhood streets and rural roads of northern Santa Barbara County in his black-and-white patrol car, sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Mathews has a front-row seat to law enforcement’s struggle against methamphetamine.

A 27-year-veteran of the department, Mathews watched as heroin and cocaine gave way 15 years ago to the cheap high of methamphetamine, a stimulant that can be smoked, snorted, eaten or injected.

His eyes scan the sidewalks for suspicious citizens as his car cruises down quaint areas such as Orcutt, Los Alamos and Casmalia, far from what most people would consider dangerous communities. Methamphetamine use happens in every neighborhood on his watch, he said.

Mathews, 49, aggressively works to enforce what police call “11550s,” a reference to the state health and safety code for those under the influence of narcotics.

In an 18-month period, Mathews has arrested more than 150 people for allegedly being under the influence of methamphetamine, he said.

Though the crime is a misdemeanor that sometimes isn’t even charged by prosecutors, Mathews believes citing people is an efficient way to pull them into the system before their health deteriorates or they harm others.

On a recent Tuesday night, Mathews was working the 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift. He estimates half the people on the street are under the influence of drugs or alcohol during that time period.

Early in his shift, Mathews spots a middle-aged man in dark clothing riding his bicycle at Clark Avenue and Gray Street in Old Town Orcutt.

The lack of lights on the man’s bike makes Mathews suspicious. So he jumps from his car and approaches.

The man is a 41-year-old construction worker biking home from his job. Mathews chats with him and then briefly tests his vital signs. The man’s eyes and eyelids are trembling, a symptom of meth use. The man’s pulse is at 120, though he is standing still.

Dispatch informs the cop that the man has a previous arrest warrant, and Mathews cuffs him and places him in the back of the patrol car.

The deputy then searches through the man’s backpack, where he is not surprised to find a home-made glass methamphetamine pipe with residue encrusted on it.

“If you don’t arrest these individuals, you’re allowing them to commit crimes,” Mathews said. “They’re the people stealing your identity and breaking into your vehicles at night. It affects quality of life.”

That’s a viewpoint shared by others in law enforcement, who say users often resort to crime to afford their habit.

“The burglary rate is high in part because of methamphetamine use,” said Lt. Larry Ralston of the Santa Maria Police Department. “People are breaking into cars stealing stereos, breaking into houses where they can buy a day’s use.”

Mail fraud and identify theft also are crimes commonly committed by meth addicts looking for quick cash, Ralston said, adding that police have had to alter their methods to adjust to the volatility of meth users.

“Meth users tend to be more violent than users of other drugs,” said Sgt. Don Dodson of the Lompoc Police Department. “The drug makes them agitated.”

In that respect, the drug is much worse than the heroin problem in the North County 20 years ago.

Dealers of meth are also more violent.

“We’re seeing a lot more guns now, which is always scary,” said Sgt. Greg Carroll of the Santa Maria Police Department’s narcotics suppression team. “I think it’s the paranoia that they get. They feel they need some sort of protection.”

The structure of meth-dealing operations in Santa Maria often starts with one person who receives several pounds of the manufactured drug from a contact in Mexico for about $6,000 a pound, Carroll said.

That person then packages the drug in smaller amounts and supplies it – for about $11,000 a pound – to other dealers, who then further break down the drug to amounts like a gram, “teener” (1/16 ounce) or “eight-ball” (1/8 ounce), police said.

A gram, which costs from $60 to $80, can provide about five doses of use, Carroll said.

For the past 10 years, meth has been the most commonly sold illegal drug in Santa Maria.

“It’s pretty much taken over,” Carroll said. “And it will be here for a while. When you have a poor economy, people tend to turn to drugs.”

With help from informants and normal patrols, police have been able to shut down several larger operations, Carroll said. However, new operations quickly rise up and meet the demand.

An ample supply of the drug will always exist on the Central Coast, said Sgt. Sean Donahue of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, noting the area’s geographic location makes it an easy distribution point.

“The main manufacturing sites are in Mexico and California,” Donahue said. “And we’re right between San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Highways) 5, 101, and 99 are all close by.”

Back at the sheriff’s substation in Orcutt, Deputy Mathews is interviewing the man he recently busted on suspicion of being under the influence.

The suspect is mild-mannered, and willing to chat with the officer.

He speaks of being a casual user of the drug who became badly addicted. Recently, the suspect purchased a small quantity of the drug from an acquaintance, and said he’d last smoked the drug several days ago.

“I use it for the rush,” the suspect said. “You feel more energetic and you get more things accomplished, I think. It’s like drinking five or ten Red Bulls. It’s overrated though, I think, really.”

The suspect agrees to take a urine test, but says he doesn’t yet have to go.

Mathews accompanies him to the substation’s jail, where the man will likely wait in a holding cell until he is ready to give a sample.

Most under-the-influence suspects are released after booking, and then sent a citation through the mail. However, this suspect’s other arrest warrant may prevent his release that night.

Though the business of collecting urine samples and booking suspects for misdemeanors is not something all deputies are interested in doing, Mathews believes it’s the only way to make a dent in local meth use.

There are some good web links at the Oregonian newspaper here.